Andy Frain alternatives: the short answer
Andy Frain Services, established in 1924 and headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, is one of the oldest names in American crowd management. Its sports and entertainment work covers crowd management, access control and credential checks, professional screening, ushering and guest relations, on-site monitoring and rapid response, screening equipment rentals, and event consulting, across sports venues, entertainment venues, and convention centers. For a venue running a repeating calendar, that is a coherent package sold by a firm that has been doing it for a century.
But "who else does this" has real answers, and they are not all the same kind of company. The alternatives sort into four groups:
- •Dedicated crowd management specialists built for the same job. CSC and BEST Crowd Management are the two most direct.
- •The national contract security giants that added event divisions, primarily Allied Universal.
- •Regional and independent event agencies that win on local labor knowledge and price in one metro.
- •The marketplace model, where you compare several vetted local agencies on published rates instead of running a procurement cycle against one vendor at a time.
Which group is right depends almost entirely on whether you own a calendar or own a date. If you staff eighty home games a year, groups one and two. If you have one festival weekend, groups three and four.
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What you are actually replacing
Before shopping alternatives, be precise about which part of the Andy Frain model you need to reproduce. Buyers usually want one of three things, and they lead to different shortlists.
The bundle. Ushers, ticket takers, guest relations, and screening staff supervised alongside licensed security officers, under one uniform standard and one invoice. This is the hardest thing to replicate with a security-only vendor, and it is the reason venue operators stay with guest-services firms.
The bench. Several hundred trained people available on a single date, with check-in, briefing, radio discipline, and layered command already worked out. Only firms that deploy at that scale weekly are good at it.
The licensed posts. Sometimes you just need qualified, licensed officers at gates, back-of-house, and perimeter for a defined number of hours. This is the case where the heavy machinery of a venue contract is overkill, and where most of the money gets wasted.
If your answer is the third one, most of this comparison resolves quickly.
The direct alternatives
CSC (Contemporary Services Corporation)
CSC is the closest philosophical competitor to Andy Frain and arguably the strongest name in the category. It states it was established in 1967, is employee-owned through an ESOP, and operates more than 45 branch locations across the United States and Canada. Its published footprint covers more than 170 stadiums, arenas, and theaters, over 120 universities and scholastic institutions, and nearly 50 convention centers.
The credential that separates CSC in procurement is the SAFETY Act. The Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002 is a Department of Homeland Security program that promotes the use of anti-terrorism technologies, and DHS approvals come at different levels, with Certification the highest. CSC states it was the first in event security and crowd management to obtain both SAFETY Act Designation and Certification. For a public venue, a university, or a municipality whose risk and legal teams weigh terrorism liability, that is a genuine differentiator worth asking every bidder about.
Where CSC is the better choice: major-league and collegiate venues, convention centers, and any buyer whose procurement or insurance review specifically values SAFETY Act status. Employee ownership also tends to correlate with lower supervisor churn, which matters more than most buyers realize.
BEST Crowd Management
BEST is part of GardaWorld, which gives it a national security parent behind an event-native brand. On its own site BEST states it has 25,000+ team members nationwide, services 250+ venues exclusively, holds 500+ client partnerships, and staffs 10,000+ events each year. Its service lines are event security, event staffing, event consulting, and on-demand security, and its named client categories include MLB, NBA, NHL, UFC, the Grammy Awards, the US Open, and Live Nation. BEST also displays SAFETY Act status on its site.
Where BEST is the better choice: touring and promoter-side work, festivals, and buyers who want event-specialist operations with a large security parent behind the contract. The "on-demand" line is also the closest a large incumbent gets to short-notice booking, though it still runs through a sales relationship rather than a published rate.
Allied Universal Event Services
Allied Universal is the largest contract security firm in North America and states an approximate workforce of 750,000 globally, 350+ branches across North America, and that it is a trusted partner to more than 400 of the Fortune 500. Its Events team markets crowd management for special events of any size as part of an integrated event security program. It has bought its way deeper into the category as well: on March 13, 2023 it announced the acquisition of Landmark Event Staffing Services, co-founded by Peter Kranske and Mike Harrison, which the release described as a comprehensive event security and guest services company supporting venue and event clients nationally.
Where Allied Universal is the better choice: you already have a national Allied Universal relationship for standing guard posts and want events added under the same master agreement, or you need one vendor across many states and service categories. If you want that scale without Allied specifically, our Allied Universal alternatives comparison covers the enterprise field in more depth.
Regional and independent event agencies
Below the nationals sit thousands of regional firms, and for a single-metro event this is often where the value is. A good local agency knows which supervisors actually show up, which labor pool it can draw on for a Saturday night, and it usually carries less corporate overhead than a national brand.
The problem is variance, and it is real. Quality across independents ranges from excellent operators with tight compliance to firms cutting corners on licensing, guard registration, and insurance in ways that only surface after an incident. That vetting burden lands on you. Our guide to vetting a security guard company covers the checks that separate the two.
The marketplace option
Calvis is a marketplace, not a security agency. It does not employ guards. It matches you with independently licensed local security agencies, shows each agency's flat hourly rate before you book, and lets you staff a single date without a season-length agreement.
The practical difference from every option above is pricing discovery. None of the contract firms publish rate cards; all of them price through proposals, RFP responses, and negotiated master agreements, which means two buyers in the same city can pay materially different bill rates for the same post. Nobody can honestly tell you who is cheaper without both quotes in hand. What a marketplace changes is that you see the number immediately and you compare several qualified agencies side by side rather than negotiating one vendor at a time.
Agency licenses and individual guard registrations are verified against state regulator databases as a condition of appearing on the marketplace, and every guard placed through Calvis holds a current license issued by the state where the event happens. Licensing always belongs to the agency, never to Calvis. Credentials and GPS-verified patrol records are visible in your dashboard before the event.
For a direct head-to-head on this specific matchup, see Calvis vs Andy Frain Services.
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Side-by-side comparison
Because none of the contract firms publish pricing, the table compares models and verified public facts rather than guessing at negotiated rates.
| Factor | Andy Frain Services | CSC | BEST Crowd Management | Allied Universal Event Services | Regional agency | Calvis marketplace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Contract event and guest services firm | Employee-owned crowd management specialist | Event specialist, part of GardaWorld | National security giant with an events division | Independent local operator | Marketplace matching vetted licensed agencies |
| Established | 1924 | 1967 | Operates under GardaWorld | Landmark acquired March 2023 | Varies | Marketplace network |
| Stated scale | Sports, entertainment, and convention venues | 45+ branches; 170+ stadiums, arenas, theaters | 25,000+ team members; 250+ exclusive venues | 750K+ workforce; 350+ North American branches | Single metro | Vetted agencies by market |
| SAFETY Act status | Ask in RFP | States first to hold Designation and Certification | Displays SAFETY Act status | Ask in RFP | Rare | Not applicable |
| Guest services bundled | Yes, ushering and guest relations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sometimes | Security posts only |
| Pricing | Quoted, not published | Quoted, not published | Quoted, not published | Quoted, not published | Quoted per agency | Flat hourly rates shown up front |
| Time to a number | Proposal cycle | Proposal cycle | Proposal cycle | Proposal cycle | Days | Immediate |
| Contract minimum | Typically season or annual | Typically season or annual | Typically season or annual | Typically annual or multi-year | Varies | None required to start |
| Best fit | Venues with a calendar | Major venues, formal procurement | Touring, festivals, promoters | Existing national accounts | Single-metro price sensitivity | One-off events, short notice |
What to check regardless of who you pick
Ask every bidder for SAFETY Act status in writing. Designation and Certification are different levels, and a logo on a website is not a contract term. If your risk team cares, put it in the RFP.
Verify the license at the regulator, not the brochure. Every state licenses security agencies, and most license individual officers. The state regulator is the authoritative source. This applies equally to a hundred-year-old national brand and a local firm.
Pressure-test the local branch, not the national resume. Large event staffing operations are run market by market. Your experience depends on which branch and which supervisor you draw. Ask for the branch's supervisor-to-officer ratio, its guard-replacement response time, and how many events it staffed in your city last season.
Separate licensed security posts from unlicensed guest-services roles. Ushers and ticket takers are not security officers, and in most states they are not licensed as such. Confirm which line items are which before you compare two quotes.
Size the staffing plan before you price it. Post count drives cost, not the other way around. Start with how many security guards you need for an event, then compare published guard pricing.
How to choose by event type
A stadium, arena, or convention center with a season. Run a formal procurement and put Andy Frain, CSC, BEST, and Allied Universal in the bid set together. This is the scenario the whole category was built for, and a marketplace is not trying to replace it.
A touring show, festival, or promoter-side date. BEST and CSC are both credible; so are strong regional event agencies in the market. Weigh whether you need bundled guest services or licensed security posts only.
A one-off corporate function, gala, or grand opening. A season-scale vendor is heavy machinery for a six-hour, twelve-post job. Compare vetted local agencies on rate and book the hours you actually need.
A short-notice or emergency date. The procurement path is structurally slower than your lead time. Marketplace booking exists for exactly this case.
A public agency or university with formal RFP requirements. Bonding, insurance certificates, prevailing wage, and SAFETY Act questions all favor bidders built to answer that paperwork. CSC's employee-ownership structure and SAFETY Act position tend to review well here.
For a broader view of the field, see our roundup of the best event security companies.